God’s Timing

Tuesday as I was teaching school, I got a text message from Justin saying a car ran into the funeral home, like INTO the funeral home. I was like holy moly!!!! What in the world!

Justin was working at the fire station, so he hears all the calls when they come in and heard the call. When I got done with class, I started receiving pictures and messages from friends and a few co-workers. The car was literally inside the funeral home!

Mrs. Ginny was working the front desk and saw and heard it all. Thank God there was not a funeral going on or and family inside at the time. And thank God I was not there either. God's timing is everything and I'm thankful I wasn't there for the accident, wasn't in the building and I'm not there to have to put up with the aftermath. And Cindy, Lord knows if Cindy would have been there, she would have went to the hospital for a panic attack and PTSD. 

We often thought about and even joked about a car coming through the funeral home and it came true! Apparently, this is the 3rd time a car and literally drove through the funeral home yall! Crazy!

So, the story is a young girl blacked out at the stop light and somehow kept driving, had her foot on the gas and drove right through the funeral home. Thankfully no one was injured in the accident either. All I know is I'm glad I don't work there anymore, haha!!!! What a mess!

See Yea Old Friend

A friend of mine Keith passed away a few days ago. I randomly saw a post on Facebook of a funeral director friend of mine who posted the passing of Kieth and I was shocked and sadden to hear he had passed away. He's just in his 40's and passed away in his sleep. Although I lost contact with Keith over the last 20 years, I have run into his wife Monika over the years and asked about Keith. 

Keith and Monika were my very first friends I ever made when I moved to Temple over 20 years ago. I knew no one besides family when I moved here. I was so excited to start a fresh new life here. I was working at the Olive Garden in Houston and transferred to the one here in Killeen. On the very first day I met both Keith and Monika there. We were all part of the wait staff. They asked if I wanted to go hang out that night and from there, we became instant friends. Since we all lived in Temple we would work all day and then go out every night. I had more inappropriate nights out with them then I want to admit, haha. They were fun friends. At the time Keith and Monika were roommates and not married. I heard years later that they ended up getting married. As time went on, I eventually quit working at the Olive Garden and kinda disappeared (I had a track record back in the day of just one day I'm here and then the next I'm gone (I guess avoiding goodbyes)) any ways I kinda split from the group after I quit and lost touch with them. I was a young 22-year-old going 90 different directions trying to make it to Dallas to mortuary school. Over the years I would see Monika at Kohls in Temple were she was the manager. When I would see her, we would catch up and she would fill me in on Keith and everything else going on. Then this past week I saw Keith had died. I was saddened to hear the news but more sad for Monika. They had been together since they were 19, they were true soulmates. I reached out to her on Facebook, and she asked me to come to the funeral and bring any pictures I had of them. As to why I started cleaning out boxes from the attic and going through boxes of pictures. I found these from our Halloween get together at Franks Marina. That was a fun night. 

I was glad I ended up going to his funeral. I got to see Monika and give her a great big hug, and I got to see a few friends from my college days. It was a great service, and I got to hear all about what he has been up to since our college days. I didn't stay long after the service was over, but it was nice seeing everyone and catching up. 

This Week’s To Do’s

Look at Jewell's second grade yearbook photo. Looking all cute in her pink. I asked her why she didn't smile and she said, "Mom, every time the person said smile I tried to smile and they already took the photo" That's okay it still turned out cute!

One of the things I realized is Jolee will not get to take class photos this year since she is homeschooled. I told her I was going to make her take one anyways. She could get all dressed up and then I could just AI a blue background on the back of the photo to make it look like a school photo, ha!

Jewell wore double pants to school, haha!

In the mornings she's always so tired. I always help her get dressed but this morning I let her put her pants on by herself. When she got home from school she said, "Mom, I wore two pairs of pants to school today", then showed me, haha! I said how in the world did you do that, she said I don't know but when I went to the bathroom I saw I was wearing two pairs of pants, lol. Silly girl!

Lots of bike riding in the evenings. Jewell is getting good at riding fast down the street.

I've been going through more boxes of photos. And it got me thinking, one day I'm going to die, and these girls will have no idea who these people are in the photos with me. So, I ditched them. I also am going to be giving old friends pictures to them. Some of the photos were inappropriate or just didn't even know how I acquired them so they are gone now and it actually makes me feel a lot better in some strange way.

I went through about 5 boxes of different stuff and have been purging a lot. It feels good to go through all this stuff. It's something I have been wanting to do for years. I plan on going through this entire house and purging what we don't use, need or want. 

 

Senior Sunday

 

Trip to the Girl Scout Store

Saturday, we took a little trip to Austin but first, donuts.

Jewell is a Brownie now for Girl Scouts. She officially leveled up from a Daisy and that means all new attire. Each girl spends 2 years in each level. Once you level up you get an all-new vest with new pins and new patches and badges. I used to buy all of Jolee and Jaina's vests at the teacher store in Temple but they have since closed but there is an actual Girl Scout store near Austin. I have always wanted to go check it out so this was the perfect opportunity.

The store is easy to find. Not quite in Austin but right off 35 more in the Round Rock area.

The store is packed with supplies, all kinds of badges and they even have a museum attached to the store. Jewell tried on her new Brownie vest; we got all her supplies to fix up her vest and some new badges for her to work on. 

Then we walked through the museum

Jolee came with us and worked through the museum too

It's very small but pretty cool!

Lots of history and fun things to look at. 

Lots of vintage Girl Scouts things to look at too

Once we were done, we headed to Georgetown to Target and Marshalls so Jolee could do some shopping.

Then I we ate at Chilli's, their favorite. 

Then headed home. I was just as tired as Jolee was ready to get home so I could take a nap too

Salado Vs. Blanco

Friday, we headed to Blanco for our first out of town football game. We were super excited for our little road trip to somewhere new. The nice thing about Jolee being homeschooled is we can just pick up and leave whenever we want. She has that flexibility to do so. And it makes it nice that she's right here at home, can get ready and we don't have to get in line to go get her. 

I went and got Jewell out of school early and then we headed to Blanco.

We always like to eat before the game starts. We ended up eating at Old 300 BBQ. It was pretty good. After our meals we headed to the game. 

As we were walking back to the car Jewell picked up this beer cap and said, "I think I'm going to start collecting beer caps", haha!

Jaina was ready for the game

Jolee did not want to be there. She gets so bored at the games. I know how that is because I remember my parents dragging me to all the football games around Houston to watch Jennifer and Stephanie in the drill team. I remember being so bored too, I hated it and this was before cell phones!!! I took a color book and colored, lol

We sat at the every top and had a great view

Ready for Friday night lights

Jaina does not get to perform at away games, only at home games, which is a bummer. We were really hoping that would change for her Senior year but sadly they did not change that rule.

Still twirled on the side line for pretty much the entire game

She was loving it and was having a blast out there

Haha I like this picuture she looks like a rocket

We got sno cones at half time that turned our mouths blue

We ended up winning!

Jaina and Dylan, yep they are back together if you were wondering. He's a great kid. He's turned out to be very polite and nice. 

Haha Jewell, I think she was ready to go home

After the game we took our per usual family photos

And on the way home we stopped at McDonalds and got the girls the new Texas size meals and saw this fire hydrant looking like a clown, lol

Staying Busy

One of the things I love so much about school these days is how much the teachers make all the parents feel included and up to date with what is happening during the school day. Jewell's teacher Mrs. Tice will upload photos of the students and share what they are learning each week. 

It's also such a great surprise when I see pictures of Jewell working hard and playing with her friends at school. 

This is one of her good friend's Laylani. They have been friends since Kindergarten and Jewell was so excited to find out they were in the same classroom again this year. 

She is also loving the new playground at her new school. The school was smart by placing a shade over the equipment. I love that for her and the teachers. 

Art work by Jewell

Jewell says she loves going to the library. They librarian will read books to them and she gets to check out chapter books, thick chapter books too.

Girl Scouts is in full swing this year. She is officially a Brownie this year. They worked on making bird houses out of popsicle sticks.

And what have I been up too since retiring from work you might ask. Well, I have been super busy every day since I left. I have lots of to do's every day. I have been redoing Jewell's and Jolee's room. (Pictures of their rooms later to come). I deep cleaned our closet and went through several boxes in the attic getting rid of things that I don't need or use anymore. And this week I have been going through the kitchen. I have so much more to go. I also have costumes to stone and homecoming mums to make coming up next month. So, to answer anyone's question I definitely am not bored. Plus, I have a part-time job as well, I will update you on that later on. 
Have I missed the funeral home or funeral business since leaving? Not at all, lol. I've been so busy I haven't even sat and thought about it and if I do, I just think of all the toxic negativity that happened over the years. This has been something I have been praying for, for a long time. God truly gave me peace. I wrestled with the idea of leaving for a looooooong time and when he finally said now is the time to go, I jumped on that! I was worried a tiny bit now a month later I just have so much peace, I'm not stressed out, my body isn't inflamed like it was, I've actually lost a few pounds, I'm just over all more happy and so very thankful every day. Justin loves that I'm home and it also takes a lot of pressure off him as well. Financially we are okay, we are content and everything is good. I know God has big plans for me (us) in the near future so for now I'm just enjoying my time and getting some things organized!